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• SQL SERVER – TechEd India 2012 – Content, Speakers and a Lots of Fun

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd is one event which every developers and IT professionals are looking forward to attend. It is opportunity of life time and no matter how many time one gets chance to engage with it, it is never enough. I still remember every single moment of every TechEd I have attended so far. We are less than 100 hours away from TechEd India 2012 event.This event is the one must attend event for every Technology Enthusiast. Fourth time in the row I am going to attend this event and I am equally excited as the first time of the event. There are going to be two very solid SQL Server track this time and I will be attending end of the end both the tracks. Here is my view on each of the 10 sessions. Each session is carefully crafted and leading exeprts from industry will present it. Day 1, March 21, 2012 T-SQL Rediscovered with SQL Server 2012 – This session is going to bring some of the lesser known enhancements that were brought with SQL Server 2012. When I learned that Jacob Sebastian is going to do this session my reaction to this is DEMO, DEMO and DEMO! Jacob spends hours and hours of his time preparing his session and this will be one of those session that I am confident will be delivered over and over through out the next many events. Catapult your data with SQL Server 2012 Integration Services – Praveen is expert story teller and one of the wizard when it is about SQL Server and business intelligence. He is surely going to mesmerize you with some interesting insights on SSIS performance too. Processing Big Data with SQL Server 2012 and Hadoop – There are three sessions on Big Data at TechEd India 2012. Stephen is going to deliver one of the session. Watching Stephen present is always joy and quite entertaining. He shares knowledge with his typical humor which captures ones attention. I wrote about what is BIG DATA in a blog post. SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolutions – I will be presenting this Session along with Vinod Kumar. READ MORE HERE. Securing with ContainedDB in SQL Server 2012 – Pranab is expert when it is about SQL Server and Security. I have seen him presenting and he is indeed very pleasant to watch. A dry subject like security, he makes it much lively. A Contained Database is a database which contains all the necessary settings and metadata, making database easily portable to another server. This database will contain all the necessary details and will not have to depend on any server where it is installed for anything. You can take this database and move it to another server without having any worries. Day 3, March 23, 2012 Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Demystified – Vinod Kumar has been writing about this extensively on his other blog post. In recent conversation he suggested that he will be creating very exclusive content for this presentation. I know Vinod for long time and have worked with him along many community activities. I am going to pay special attention to the details. I know Vinod has few give-away planned now for attending the session now only if he shares with us. Speed Up – Parallel Processes and unparalleled Performance – Performance tuning is my favorite subject. I will be discussing effect of parallelism on performance in this session. Here me out, there will be lots of quiz questions during this session and if you get the answers correct – you can win some really cool goodies – I Promise! READ MORE HERE. Keep your database available – AlwaysOn – Balmukund is like an army man. He is always ready to show and prove that he has coolest toys in terms of SQL Server and he knows how to keep them running AlwaysON. Availability groups, Listener, Clustering, Failover, Read-Only replica etc all will be demo’ed in this session. This is really heavy but very interesting content not to be missed. Lesser known facts about SQL Server Backup and Restore – Amit Banerjee – this name is known internationally for solving SQL Server problems in 140 characters. He has already blogged about this and this topic is going to be interesting. A successful restore strategy for applications is as good as their last good known backup. I have few difficult questions to ask to Amit and I am very sure that his unique style will entertain people. By the way, his one of the slide may give few in audience a funny heart attack. Top 5 reasons why you want SQL Server 2012 BI – Praveen plans to take a tour of some of the BI enhancements introduced in the new version. Business Insights with SQL Server is a critical building block and this version of SQL Server is no exception. For the matter of the fact, when I saw the demos he was going to show during this session, I felt like that I wish I can set up all of this on my machine. If you miss this session – you will miss one of the most informative session of the day. Also TechEd India 2012 has a Live streaming of some content and this can be watched here. The TechEd Team is planning to have some really good exclusive content in this channel as well. If you spot me, just do not hesitate to come by me and introduce yourself, I want to remember you! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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• What Will Happen to Real Estate Leases when Operating Leases are Gone?

  - by Theresa Hickman

  Many people are concerned about what will happen to real estate leases when FASB and IASB abolish operating leases. They plan to unveil the proposed standards on treating leases this summer as part of the convergence project but no "finalized ruling" is expected for at least a year because it will need to get formal consensus from many players, such as the SEC, American Association of Investors, Congress, the Big Four, American Associate of Realtors, the international equivalents of these, etc. If your accounting is a bit rusty, an Operating Lease is where you lease equipment or some asset for a shorter period than the actual (expected) life of the asset and then give the asset back while it still has some useful life in it. (Think leasing a car). Because an Operating Lease does not contain any of the provisions that would qualify it as a Capital Lease, the lease is not treated as a sale or purchase and hits the lessee's rental expense and the lessor's revenue. So it all stays on the P&L (assuming no prepayments are made). Capital Leases, on the other hand, hit lessee's and lessor's balance sheets because the asset is treated as a sale. (I'm ignoring interest and depreciation here to emphasize my point). Question: What will happen to real estate leases when Operating Leases go away and how will Oracle Financials address these changes? Before I attempt to address these questions, here's a real-life example to expound on some of the issues: Let's say a U.S. retailer leases a store in a mall for 15 years. Under U.S. GAAP, the lease is considered an operating or expense lease. Will that same lease be considered a capital lease under IFRS? Real estate leases are supposedly going to be capitalized under IFRS. If so, will everyone need to change all leases from operating to capital? Or, could we make some adjustments so we report the lease as an expense for operations reporting but capitalize it for SEC reporting? Would all aspects of the lease be capitalized, or would some line items still be expensed? For example, many retail store leases are defined to include (1) the agreed-to rent amount; (2) a negotiated increase in base rent, e.g., maybe a 5% increase in Year 5; (3) a sales rent component whereby the retailer pays a variable additional amount based on the sales generated in the prior month; (4) parking lot maintenance fees. Would the entire lease be capitalized, or would some portions still be expensed? To help answer these questions, I met up with our resident accounting expert and walking encyclopedia, Seamus Moran. Here's what he had to say: Oracle is aware of the potential changes specific to reporting/capitalization of real estate leases; i.e., we are aware that FASB and IASB have identified real estate leases as one of the areas for standards convergence. Oracle stays apprised of the on-going convergence through our domain expertise staff, our relationship with customers, our market awareness, and, of course, our relationships with the Big 4. This is part of our normal process with respect to regulatory compliance worldwide. At this time, Oracle expects that the standards convergence committee will make a recommendation about reporting standards for real estate leases in about a year. Following typical procedures, we also expect that the recommendation will be up for review for a year, and customers will then need to start reporting to the new standard about a year after that. So that means we would expect the first customer to report under the new standard in maybe 3 years. Typically, after the new standard is finalized and distributed, we find that our customers then begin to evaluate how they plan to meet the new standard. And through groups like the Customer Advisory Boards (CABs), our customers tell us what kind of product changes are needed in order to satisfy their new reporting requirements. Of course, Oracle is also working with the Big 4 and Accenture and other implementers in order to ascertain that these recommended changes will indeed meet new reporting standards. So the best advice we can offer right now is, stay apprised of the standards convergence committee; know that Oracle is also staying abreast of developments; get involved with your CAB so your voice is heard; know that Oracle products continue to be GAAP compliant, and we will continue to maintain that as our standard. But exactly what is that "standard"--we need to wait on the standards convergence committee. In a nut shell, operating leases will become either capital leases or month to month rentals, but it is still too early, too political and too uncertain to call out at this point.

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• Evaluating Solutions to Manage Product Compliance? Don’t Wait Much Longer

  - by Evelyn Neumayr

  By Kerrie Foy, Director PLM Product Marketing, Oracle Depending on severity, product compliance issues can cause various problems from run-away budgets to business closures. But effective policies and safeguards can create a strong foundation for innovation, productivity, market penetration and competitive advantage. If you’ve been putting off a systematic approach to product compliance, it is time to reconsider that decision. Why now?  No matter what industry, companies face a litany of worldwide and regional regulations that require proof of product compliance and environmental friendliness for market access.  For example, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), a regulation that restricts the use of six dangerous materials used in the manufacture of electronic and electrical equipment, was originally adopted by the European Union in 2003 for implementation in 2006 and has evolved over time through various regional versions for North America, China, Japan, Korea, Norway and Turkey. In addition, the RoHS directive allowed for material exemptions used in Medical Devices, but that exemption ends in 2014. Additional regulations worth watching are the Battery Directive, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) directives. Additional regulations are expected from organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration in the US and similar organizations elsewhere. Meeting compliance requirements and also successfully investing in eco-friendly designs can be a major challenge. It may involve transforming business models, go-to-market strategies, supply networks, quality assurance policies and compliance processes.  Without a single source of truth for product data and without proper processes in place, ensuring product compliance burgeons into a crushing task that is cost-prohibitive and overwhelming.  However, the risk to consumer goodwill and satisfaction, revenue, business continuity, and market potential is too great not to solve the compliance challenge. Companies are beginning to adapt and thrive by implementing systematic approaches to product compliance that are more than functional bandages, they are revenue-generating engines. Consider working with Oracle to help you address your compliance needs. Many of the world’s most innovative leaders and pioneers are leveraging Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) portfolio of enterprise applications to manage the product value chain, centralize product data, automate processes, and launch more eco-friendly products to market faster.   Particularly, the Agile Product Governance & Compliance (PG&C) solution provides out-of-the-box functionality to integrate actionable regulatory information into the enterprise product record from the ideation to the disposal/recycling phase.  Agile PG&C is a comprehensive solution that makes product compliance per corporate initiatives and regulations more reliable and efficient. Throughout product lifecycles, use the solution to support full material disclosures, gain rapid visibility into non-compliance issues, efficiently manage declarations with your suppliers, feed compliance data into a corrective action if a product must be changed, and swiftly satisfy audits by showing all due diligence tracked in one solution. Given the compounding regulation and consumer focus on urgent environmental issues, now is the time to act. Implementing an enterprise-wide systematic approach to product compliance is a competitive investment. From the start, Agile PG&C enables companies to confidently design for compliance and sustainability, reduce the cost of compliance, minimize the risk of business interruption, deliver responsible products, and inspire new innovation.  Don’t wait any longer! To find out more about Agile Product Governance & Compliance download the data sheet, contact your sales representative, or call Oracle at 1-800-633-0738.

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• Tuning Red Gate: #4 of Some

  - by Grant Fritchey

  First time connecting to these servers directly (keys to the kingdom, bwa-ha-ha-ha. oh, excuse me), so I'm going to take a look at the server properties, just to see if there are any issues there. Max memory is set, cool, first possible silly mistake clear. In fact, these look to be nicely set up. Oh, I'd like to see the ANSI Standards set by default, but it's not a big deal. The default location for database data is the F:\ drive, where I saw all the activity last time. Cool, the people maintaining the servers in our company listen, parallelism threshold is set to 35 and optimize for ad hoc is enabled. No shocks, no surprises. The basic setup is appropriate. On to the problem database. Nothing wrong in the properties. The database is in SIMPLE recovery, but I think it's a reporting system, so no worries there. Again, I'd prefer to see the ANSI settings for connections, but that's the worst thing I can see. Time to look at the queries, tables, indexes and statistics because all the information I've collected over the last several days suggests that we're not looking at a systemic problem (except possibly not enough memory), but at the traditional tuning issues. I just want to note that, I started looking at the system, not the queries. So should you when tuning your environment. I know, from the data collected through SQL Monitor, what my top poor performing queries are, and the most frequently called, etc. I'm starting with the most frequently called. I'm going to get the execution plan for this thing out of the cache (although, with the cache dumping constantly, I might not get it). And it's not there. Called 1.3 million times over the last 3 days, but it's not in cache. Wow. OK. I'll see what's in cache for this database: SELECT  deqs.creation_time,         deqs.execution_count,         deqs.max_logical_reads,         deqs.max_elapsed_time,         deqs.total_logical_reads,         deqs.total_elapsed_time,         deqp.query_plan,         SUBSTRING(dest.text, (deqs.statement_start_offset / 2) + 1,                   (deqs.statement_end_offset - deqs.statement_start_offset) / 2                   + 1) AS QueryStatement FROM    sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS deqs         CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(deqs.sql_handle) AS dest         CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_query_plan(deqs.plan_handle) AS deqp WHERE   dest.dbid = DB_ID('Warehouse') AND deqs.statement_end_offset > 0 AND deqs.statement_start_offset > 0 ORDER BY deqs.max_logical_reads DESC ; And looking at the most expensive operation, we have our first bad boy: Multiple table scans against very large sets of data and a sort operation. a sort operation? It's an insert. Oh, I see, the table is a heap, so it's doing an insert, then sorting the data and then inserting into the primary key. First question, why isn't this a clustered index? Let's look at some more of the queries. The next one is deceiving. Here's the query plan: You're thinking to yourself, what's the big deal? Well, what if I told you that this thing had 8036318 reads? I know, you're looking at skinny little pipes. Know why? Table variable. Estimated number of rows = 1. Actual number of rows. well, I'm betting several more than one considering it's read 8 MILLION pages off the disk in a single execution. We have a serious and real tuning candidate. Oh, and I missed this, it's loading the table variable from a user defined function. Let me check, let me check. YES! A multi-statement table valued user defined function. And another tuning opportunity. This one's a beauty, seriously. Did I also mention that they're doing a hash against all the columns in the physical table. I'm sure that won't lead to scans of a 500,000 row table, no, not at all. OK. I lied. Of course it is. At least it's on the top part of the Loop which means the scan is only executed once. I just did a cursory check on the next several poor performers. all calling the UDF. I think I found a big tuning opportunity. At this point, I'm typing up internal emails for the company. Someone just had their baby called ugly. In addition to a series of suggested changes that we need to implement, I'm also apologizing for being such an unkind monster as to question whether that third eye & those flippers belong on such an otherwise lovely child.

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• Introducing MySQL for Excel

  - by Javier Treviño

  As part of the new product initiatives of the MySQL on Windows group we released a tool that makes the task of getting data in and out of a MySQL Database very friendly and intuitive, and we paired it with one of the preferred applications for data analysis and manipulation in Windows platforms, MS Excel. Welcome to MySQL for Excel, an add-in that is installed and accessed from within the MS Excel’s Data tab offering a wizard-like interface arranged in an elegant yet simple way to help users browse MySQL Schemas, Tables, Views and Procedures and perform data operations against them using MS Excel as the vehicle to drive the data in and out MySQL Databases. One of the coolest features we had in mind designing MySQL for Excel is simplicity. MS Excel is simple and easy to work with, thus liked by many Windows users because they don’t have to be software gurus to use it.  We applied the same principle by targeting MySQL for Excel to any kind of user, so if you are already familiarized with Excel’s interface you will find yourself working with MySQL data in no time. MySQL for Excel is shipped within the MySQL Installer as one of the tools in the suite; if prerequisites are already installed (.NET Framework 4.0, Visual Studio Tools for Office 4.0 and of course MS Office), installing the add-in involves a very few clicks and no further setup to use it. Being an Excel Add-In there is no executable file involved after the installation, running MS Excel and opening the add-in from its Data tab is all that is required. MySQL for Excel automatically integrates with MySQL Workbench (if installed) to share the same connections to MySQL Server installations, that way connections are defined just once in either product saving time.  Opening the Add-In brings the Welcome Panel at the right side of the Excel main window from which connections to MySQL Servers are shown grouped by Local VS Remote connections; then users can open any of those connections by double-clicking it and entering the password of the used account.  Additionally a user can create a connection by clicking on the New Connection action label or edit connections through MySQL Workbench (if installed) by clicking on the Manage Connections action label. Once a connection is opened, the Schema Selection panel is shown, at the top of it the selected connection (connection name, hostname/IP and username). Just below, a list of schemas is displayed where User Schemas are grouped first followed by System Schemas; users can double-click any selected schema to go to the next panel or select a schema and clicking the Next > button. Users can alternatively click on the < Back button to go back to the Welcome Panel to close the current connection and open a new one; also by clicking the Create New Schema action label they can create an empty new schema. Once a schema is opened the DB Object Selection panel is shown, this is actually the place where the fun stuff happens; from here users are able to perform actions against MySQL Tables, Views and Procedures. ">The actions available here are about importing data from a MySQL Table, View or Procedure to Excel, exporting Excel data to a new MySQL Table, appending Excel data to an existing MySQL Table or editing a MySQL Table’s data by using an Excel Worksheet as a user interface to update data in any row/column, insert new rows or delete existing rows in a very easy and friendly way. More blog posts will follow describing all of these actions, so stay tuned! Remember that your feedback is very important for us, so drop us a message: · MySQL on Windows (this) Blog - https://blogs.oracle.com/MySqlOnWindows/ · Forum - http://forums.mysql.com/list.php?172 · Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/mysql Cheers!

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• How do developer get rid of silly requirements?

  - by sugar

  Hmm ! First of all let me give you the note of the requirement. So that you can have idea what kind of problem I am facing. Words From Project Manager : Hey ! Sugar, I am assigning you a task for developing a framework. This framework is supposed to be developed for all iOS application. Please go through brief of the required framework. It should be able to detect the thickness of my Thumb. It should be able to detect whether User is using thumb or Fingers If user is using thumbs/Fingers, Framework should calculate the size of thumb/fingers. Once size is been calculated, all elements of user interface should arranged & resized automatically. ( not specified how & where as its framework - it should be smart enough to arrange automatically ) If thumb size is larger elements should get arranged near by center area of iPad/iPhone If thumb size is smaller elements should get arranged near by corners of iPad/iPhone If thumb size is larger, fonts of all elements should get smaller. ( assuming = aged person ) If thumb size is smaller, fonts of all elements should get larger. ( assuming smaller thumb = low aged person ) Summary : This framework is required for creating user-friendly user-interfaces programmatically. We need to develop a very developer-friendly framework. Framework should be developed in such a way that we can use in as many projects as needed. Well, I am a developer. What I want to have as an answer is as follows. How to describe them - the way of they thinking is bit ridiculous ? How do I explain them - we can better concentrate on developing actual projects ? How do I convince them - that this kind of things even if possible, is not recommended to develop such things ? How do I say politely, gently & respectfully NO to this ? What should I say, So that they can not point at my experience ? ( e.g. you are 3 years experienced guy & you must have abilities to develop such things ) Feeling horror. Please help. Thanks in advance, Sugar. Note : Please help me to tag this question properly. I am stuck & this is real situation. Frustrated & tensed. You guys might have faced such requirements from TopLevel. requesting you to help with your experience. Well ! I came to know that - those TOPLEVEL guys don't have any idea of iPad, iPhone, Apple etc. I would do one thing. Sir, before we go further for framework development. It is strongly recommended to read Apple Human Interface Guidlines.

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• My Feelings About Microsoft Surface

  - by Valter Minute

  Advice: read the title carefully, I’m talking about “feelings” and not about advanced technical points proved in a scientific and objective way I still haven’t had a chance to play with a MS Surface tablet (I would love to, of course) and so my ideas just came from reading different articles on the net and MS official statements. Remember also that the MVP motto begins with “Independent” (“Independent Experts. Real World Answers.”) and this is just my humble opinion about a product and a technology. I know that, being an MS MVP you can be called an “MS-fanboy”, I don’t care, I hope that people can appreciate my opinion, even if it doesn’t match theirs. The “Surface” brand can be confusing for techies that knew the “original” surface concept but I think that will be a fresh new brand name for most of the people out there. But marketing department are here to confuse people… so I can understand this “recycle” of an existing name. So Microsoft is entering the hardware arena… for me this is good news. Microsoft developed some nice hardware in the past: the xbox, zune (even if the commercial success was quite limited) and, last but not least, the two arc mices (old and new model) that I use and appreciate. In the past Microsoft worked with OEMs and that model lead to good and bad things. Good thing (for microsoft, at least) is market domination by windows-based PCs that only in the last years has been reduced by the return of the Mac and tablets. Google is also moving in the hardware business with its acquisition of Motorola, and Apple leveraged his control of both the hardware and software sides to develop innovative products. Microsoft can scare OEMs and make them fly away from windows (but where?) or just lead the pack, showing how devices should be designed to compete in the market and bring back some of the innovation that disappeared from recent PC products (look at the shelves of your favorite electronics store and try to distinguish a laptop between the huge mass of anonymous PCs on displays… only Macs shine out there…). Having to compete with MS “official” hardware will force OEMs to develop better product and bring back some real competition in a market that was ruled only by prices (the lower the better even when that means low quality) and no innovative features at all (when it was the last time that a new PC surprised you?). Moving into a new market is a big and risky move, but with Windows 8 Microsoft is playing a crucial move for its future, trying to be back in the innovation run against apple and google. MS can’t afford to fail this time. I saw the new devices (the WinRT and Pro) and the specifications are scarce, misleading and confusing. The first impression is that the device looks like an iPad with a nice keyboard cover… Using “HD” and “full HD” to define display resolution instead of using the real figures and reviving the “ClearType” brand (now dead on Win8 as reported here and missed by people who hate to read text on displays, like myself) without providing clear figures (couldn’t you count those damned pixels?) seems to imply that MS was caught by surprise by apple recent “retina” displays that brought very high definition screens on tablets.Also there are no specifications about the processors used (even if some sources report NVidia Tegra for the ARM tablet and i5 for the x86 one) and expected battery life (a critical point for tablets and the point that killed Windows7 x86 based tablets). Also nothing about the price, and this will be another critical point because other platform out there already provide lots of applications and have a good user base, if MS want to enter this market tablets pricing must be competitive. There are some expansion ports (SD and USB), so no fixed storage model (even if the specs talks about 32-64GB for RT and 128-256GB for pro). I like this and don’t like the apple model where flash memory (that it’s dirt cheap used in thumdrives or SD cards) is as expensive as gold (or cocaine to have a more accurate per gram measurement) when mounted inside a tablet/phone. For big files you’ll be able to use external media and an SD card could be used to store files that don’t require super-fast SSD-like access times, I hope. To be honest I really don’t like the marketplace model and the limitation of Windows RT APIs (no local database? from a company that based a good share of its success on VB6+Access!) and lack of desktop support on the ARM (even if the support is here and has been used to port office). It’s a step toward the consumer market (where competitors are making big money), but may impact enterprise (and embedded) users that may not appreciate Windows 8 new UI or the limitations of the new app model (if you aren’t connected you are dead ). Not having compatibility with the desktop will require brand new applications and honestly made all the CPU cycles spent to convert .NET IL into real machine code in the past like a huge waste of time… as soon as a new processor architecture is supported by Windows you still have to rewrite part of your application (and MS is pushing HTML5+JS and native code more than .NET in my perception). On the other side I believe that the development experience provided by Visual Studio is still miles (or kilometres) ahead of the competition and even the all-uppercase menu of VS2012 hasn’t changed this situation. The new metro UI got mixed reviews. On my side I should say that is very pleasant to use on a touch screen, I like the minimalist design (even if sometimes is too minimal and hides stuff that, in my opinion, should be visible) but I should also say that using it with mouse and keyboard is like trying to pick your nose with boxing gloves… Metro is also very interesting for embedded devices where touch screen usage is quite common and where having an application taking all the screen is the norm. For devices like kiosks, vending machines etc. this kind of UI can be a great selling point. I don’t need a new tablet (to be honest I’m pretty happy with my wife’s iPad and with my PC), but I may change my opinion after having a chance to play a little bit with those new devices and understand what’s hidden under all this mysterious and generic announcements and specifications!

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• Representing Mauritius in the 2013 Bench Games

  Only by chance I came across an interesting option for professionals and enthusiasts in IT, and quite honestly I can't even remember where I caught attention of Brainbench and their 2013 Bench Games event. But having access to 600+ free exams in a friendly international intellectual competition doesn't happen to be available every day. So, it was actually a no-brainer to sign up and browse through the various categories. Most interestingly, Brainbench is not only IT-related. They offer a vast variety of fields in their Test Center, like Languages and Communication, Office Skills, Management, Aptitude, etc., and it can be a little bit messy about how things are organised. Anyway, while browsing through their test offers I added a couple of exams to 'My Plan' which I would give a shot afterwards. Self-assessments Actually, I took the tests based on two major aspects: 'Fun Factor' and 'How good would I be in general'... Usually, you have to pay for any kind of exams and given this unique chance by Brainbench to simply train this kind of tests was already worth the time. Frankly speaking, the tests are very close to the ones you would be asked to do at Prometric or Pearson Vue, ie. Microsoft exams, etc. Go through a set of multiple choice questions in a given time frame. Most of the tests I did during the Bench Games were based on 40 questions, each with a maximum of 3 minutes to answer. Ergo, one test in maximum 2 hours - that sounds feasible, doesn't it? The Measure of Achievement While the 2013 Bench Games are considered a worldwide friendly competition of knowledge I was really eager to get other Mauritians attracted. Using various social media networks and community activities it all looked quite well at the beginning. Mauritius was listed on rank #19 of Most Certified Citizens and rank #10 of Most Master Level Certified Nation - not bad, not bad... Until... the next update of the Bench Games Leaderboard. The downwards trend seemed to be unstoppable and I couldn't understand why my results didn't show up on the Individual Leader Board. First of all, I passed exams that were not even listed and second, I had better results on some exams listed. After some further information from the organiser it turned out that my test transcript wasn't available to the public. Only then results are considered and counted in the competition. During that time, I actually managed to hold 3 test results on the Individuals... Other participants were merciless, eh, more successful than me, produced better test results than I did. But still I managed to stay on the final score board: An 'exotic' combination of exam, test result, country and person itself Representing Mauritius and the Visual FoxPro community in that fun event. And although I mainly develop in Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2 and C# using .NET Framework from 2.0 to 4.5 since a couple of years I still managed to pass on Master Level. Hm, actually my Microsoft Certified Programmer (MCP) exams are dated back in June 2004 - more than 9 years ago... Look who got lucky... As described above I did a couple of exams as time allowed and without any preparations, but still I received the following mail notification: "Thank you for recently participating in our Bench Games event.  We wanted to inform you that you obtained a top score on our test(s) during this event, and as a result, will receive a free annual Brainbench subscription.  Your annual subscription will give you access to all our tests just like Bench Games, but for an entire year plus additional benefits!" -- Leader Board Notification from Brainbench Even fun activities get rewarded sometimes. Thanks to @Brainbench_com for the free annual subscription based on my passed 2013 Bench Games Master Level exam. It would be interesting to know about the total figures, especially to see how many citizens of Mauritius took part in this year's Bench Games. Anyway, I'm looking forward to be able to participate in other challenges like this in the future.

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• SharePoint Content and Site Editing Tips

  - by Bil Simser

  A few content management and site editing tips for power users on this bacon flavoured unicorn morning. The theme here is keep it clean!Write "friendly" email addressesRemember it's human beings reading your content. So seeing something like "If you have questions please send an email to [email protected]" breaks up the readiblity. Instead just do the simple steps of writing the content in plain English and going back, highlighting the name and insert a link (note: you might have to prefix the link with mailto:[email protected]). It makes for a friendlier looking page and hides the ugliness that are sometimes in email addresses.Use friendly column and list namesThis is a big pet peeve of mine. When you first create a column or list with spaces the internal name is changed. The display name might be "My Amazing List of Animals with Large Testicles" but the internal (and link) name becomes "My_x00x20_Amazing_x00x20_List_x00x20_of_x00x20_Animals_x00x20_with_x00x20_Large_x00x20_Testicles". What's worse is if you create a publishing page named "This Website is Fueled By a Dolphin's Spleen". Not only is it incorrect grammar, but the apostrophe wreaks havoc on both the internal name for the list (with lots of crazy hex codes) as well as the hyperlink (where everything is uuencoded). Instead create the list with a distinct and compact name then go back and change it to whatever you want. The end result is a better formed name that you can both script and access in code easier.Keep your Views CleanWhen you add a column to a list or create a new list the default is to add it to the default view. Do everyone a favour and don't check this box! The default view of a list should be something similar to the Title field and nothing else. Keep it clean. If you want to set a defalt view that's different, go back and create one with all the fields and filtering and sorting columns you want and set it as default. It's a good idea to keep the original AllItems.aspx (note the lack of space in the filename!) easy and unfiltered. It's also a good idea to keep your column count down in views. Don't let every column be added by default and don't add every column just because you can. Create separate views for distinct responsibilities and try to keep the number of columns down to a single screen to prevent horizontal scrolling.Simple NavigationThe Quick Launch is a great tool for navigating around your site but don't use the default of adding all lists to it. Uncheck that box and keep navigation simple. Create custom groupings that make sense so if you don't have a site with "Documents and Lists" but "Reports and Notices" makes more sense then do it. Also hide internal lists from the Quick Launch. For example, if most users don't need to see all the lookup tables you might have on a site don't show them. You can use audience filtering on the Quick Launch if you want to hide admin items from non-admin users so consider that as an option.Enjoy!

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• .htaccess - RewriteRules working, but browser address bar displaying full (unfriendly) URL

  - by axol

  Hey there, Haven't been able to find a solution to this around the net or these forums - apologise if I've missed something! My .htaccess RewriteRules are working well - have search-engine and user -friendly links in my web pages, and unfriendly database URLs running hidden in the background. Except when I added a RewriteRule to add "www." to the front of URLs if the user didn't enter it - to ensure only one appears in search engines. Here's what now happening, and I can't figure out why! My friendly URL structure for content is like this, and the database query string uses the first "importantword": www.example.com/importantword-nonimportantword/ .htaccess snippet: Options +FollowSymLinks Options -Indexes RewriteEngine on RewriteOptions MaxRedirects=10 RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^/$ index.php [L] RewriteRule ^(.*)-(.*)/overview/$ detail.php?categoryID=$1 [L] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.example.com$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L] What's happening since I added the last 2 lines: CASE 1: user types (or clicks) www.example.com/honda-vehicle/overview/ - Works correctly - They are taken to the correct page and the browser URL bar says: www.example.com/honda-vehicles/overview/ CASE 2: user types example.com - Works correctly - They are taken to www.example.com and the browser URL bar says: www.example.com CASE 3: user types (or clicks) example.com/honda-vehicles/overview/ i.e. without the prefix "www" - Does NOT work correctly - They are taken to the right page, but the browser URL bar displays the unfriendly URL: www.example.com/detail.php?categoryID=honda I figure there's some issue with the order of the RewriteRules, but it's doing my head in trying to logically step through it and figure it out! Any assistance at all or pointers would be most appreciated!

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• Data Collection (Offline - no internet) and then syncing it to generate reports from server

  - by Nishant

  So, I have a new project I am planning on taking, and needed to know what skills will be required to achieve this project. The project is to do intensive data collection in the field where they don't have internet access. As part of the data collection, images will be uploaded as part of the data collection which will have to be resized, etc. Once the data collection occurs, this data needs to be consolidated and reported on. I am thinking there are two ways of generating the report. 1. Into a PDF that can be designed. 2. Is there a way to generate an executable file (since the PDF will be huge due to multiple images, etc) and the executable file is navigation friendly with drop-downs etc. It might not be an executable file, but could be a web page or some way that this can be delivered to the client in a friendly professional way. The PDF will have to be generated somehow so that it can be printed as a hard copy. What languages and skill sets will I need to accomplish this project?

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• Is it possible to "trick" PrintScreen, swap out the contents of my form with something else before c

  - by Lasse V. Karlsen

  I have a bit of a challenge. In an earlier version of our product, we had an error message window (last resort, unhandled exception) that showed the exception message, type, stack trace + various bits and pieces of information. This window was printscreen-friendly, in that if the user simply did a printscreen-capture, and emailed us the screenshot, we had almost everything we needed to start diagnosing the problem. However, the form was deemed too technical and "scary" for normal users, so it was toned down to a more friendly one, still showing the error message, but not the stack trace and some of the more gory details that I'd still like to get. In addition, the form was added the capabilities of emailing us a text file containing everything we had before + lots of other technical details as well, basically everything we need. However, users still use PrintScreen to capture the contents of the form and email that back to us, which means I now have a less than optimal amount of information to go on. So I was wondering. Would it be possible for me to pre-render a bitmap the same size as my form, with everything I need on it, detect that PrintScreen was hit and quickly swap out the form contents with my bitmap before capture, and then back again afterwards? And before you say "just educate the users", yes, that's not going to work. These are not out users, they're users at our customers place, so we really cannot tell them to wisen up all that much. Or, barring this, is there a way for me to detect PrintScreen, tell Windows to ignore it, and instead react to it, by dumping the aformentioned prerendered bitmap onto the clipboard ready for placing into an email? The code is C# 3.0 in .NET 3.5, if it matters, but pointers for something to look at/for is good enough.

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• PHP Object References in Frameworks

  - by bigstylee

  Before I dive into the disscusion part a quick question; Is there a method to determine if a variable is a reference to another variable/object? For example $foo = 'Hello World'; $bar = &$foo; echo (is_reference($bar) ? 'Is reference' : 'Is orginal'; I have been using PHP5 for a few years now (personal use only) and I would say I am moderately reversed on the topic of Object Orientated implementation. However the concept of Model View Controller Framework is fairly new to me. I have looked a number of tutorials and looked at some of the open source frameworks (mainly CodeIgnitor) to get a better understanding how everything fits together. I am starting to appreciate the real benefits of using this type of structure. I am used to implementing object referencing in the following technique. class Foo{ public $var = 'Hello World!'; } class Bar{ public function __construct(){ global $Foo; echo $Foo->var; } } $Foo = new Foo; $Bar = new Bar; I was surprised to see that CodeIgnitor and Yii pass referencs of objects and can be accessed via the following method: $this->load->view('argument') The immediate advantage I can see is a lot less code and more user friendly. But I do wonder if it is more efficient as these frameworks are presumably optimised? Or simply to make the code more user friendly? This was an interesting article Do not use PHP references.

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• optimize 2D array in C++

  - by Hristo

  I'm dealing with a 2D array with the following characteristics: const int cols = 500; const int rows = 100; int arr[rows][cols]; I access array arr in the following manner to do some work: for(int k = 0; k < T; ++k) { // for each trainee myscore[k] = 0; for(int i = 0; i < N; ++i) { // for each sample for(int j = 0; j < E[i]; ++j) { // for each expert myscore[k] += delta(i, anotherArray[k][i], arr[j][i]); } } } So I am worried about the array 'arr' and not the other one. I need to make this more cache-friendly and also boost the speed. I was thinking perhaps transposing the array but I wasn't sure how to do that. My implementation turns out to only work for square matrices. How would I make it work for non-square matrices? Also, would mapping the 2D array into a 1D array boost the performance? If so, how would I do that? Finally, any other advice on how else I can optimize this... I've run out of ideas, but I know that arr[j][i] is the place where I need to make changes because I'm accessing columns by columns instead of rows by rows so that is not cache friendly at all. Thanks, Hristo

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• How frequently IP packets are fragmented at the source host?

  - by Methos

  I know that if IP payload MTU then routers usually fragment the IP packet. Finally all the fragmented packets are assembled at the destination using the fields IP-ID, IP fragment offsets and fragmentation flags. Max length of IP payload is 64K. Thus its very plausible for L4 to hand over payload which is 64K. If the L2 protocol is Ethernet, which often is the case, then the MTU will be about 1600 bytes. Hence IP packet will be fragmented at the source host itself. However, a quick search about IP implementation in Linux tells me that in recent kernels, L4 protocols are fragment friendly i.e. they try to save the fragmentation work for IP by handing over buffers of size which is close to MTU. Considering these two facts, I am wondering about how frequently does the IP packet gets fragmented at the source host itself. Does it occur sometimes/rarely/never? Does anyone know if there are exceptions to the rule of fragmentation in linux kernel (i.e. are there situations where L4 protocols are not fragment friendly)? How is this handled in other common OSes like windows? In general how frequently IP packets are fragmented?

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• How can I shared controller logic in ASP.NET MVC for 2 controllers, where they are overriden

  - by AbeP

  Hello, I am trying to implement user-friendly URLS, while keeping the existing routes, and was able to do so using the ActionName tag on top of my controller (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/436866/can-you-overload-controller-methods-in-asp-net-mvc) I have 2 controllers: ActionName("UserFriendlyProjectIndex")] public ActionResult Index(string projectName) { ... } public ActionResult Index(long id) { ... } Basically, what I am trying to do is I store the user-friendly URL in the database for each project. If the user enters the URL /Project/TopSecretProject/, the action UserFriendlyProjectIndex gets called. I do a database lookup and if everything checks out, I want to apply the exact same logic that is used in the Index action. I am basically trying to avoid writing duplicate code. I know I can separate the common logic into another method, but I wanted to see if there is a built-in way of doing this in ASP.NET MVC. Any suggestions? I tried the following and I go the View could not be found error message: [ActionName("UserFriendlyProjectIndex")] public ActionResult Index(string projectName) { var filteredProjectName = projectName.EscapeString().Trim(); if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(filteredProjectName)) return RedirectToAction("PageNotFound", "Error"); using (var db = new PIMPEntities()) { var project = db.Project.Where(p => p.UserFriendlyUrl == filteredProjectName).FirstOrDefault(); if (project == null) return RedirectToAction("PageNotFound", "Error"); return View(Index(project.ProjectId)); } } Here's the error message: The view 'UserFriendlyProjectIndex' or its master could not be found. The following locations were searched: ~/Views/Project/UserFriendlyProjectIndex.aspx ~/Views/Project/UserFriendlyProjectIndex.ascx ~/Views/Shared/UserFriendlyProjectIndex.aspx ~/Views/Shared/UserFriendlyProjectIndex.ascx Project\UserFriendlyProjectIndex.spark Shared\UserFriendlyProjectIndex.spark I am using the SparkViewEngine as the view engine and LINQ-to-Entities, if that helps. thank you!

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• Should checkins be small steps or complete features?

  - by Caspin

  Two of version controls uses seem to dictate different checkin styles. distibution centric: changesets will generally reflect a complete feature. In general these checkins will be larger. This style is more user/maintainer friendly. rollback centric: changesets will be individual small steps so the history can function like an incredibly powerful undo. In general these checkins will be smaller. This style is more developer friendly. I like to use my version control as really powerful undo while while I banging away at some stubborn code/bug. In this way I'm not afraid to make drastic changes just to try out a possible solution. However, this seems to give me a fragmented file history with lots of "well that didn't work" checkins. If instead I try to have my changeset reflect complete features I loose the use of my version control software for experimentation. However, it is much easier for user/maintainers to figure out how the code is evolving. Which has great advantages for code reviews, managing multiple branches, etc. So what's a developer to do? checkin small steps or complete features?

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• Continuous Flash music player while navigating site

  - by phx-zs

  I have a site that includes a Flash music player integrated into the layout. I want users to be able to navigate around the site without interrupting the music. I've done plenty of research and thinking and the following are the options I came up with (keeping in mind I want to be as SEO friendly as possible). Anyone have another idea? AJAX: I set up a version that changes the main content div to whatever nav link they click, thereby not interrupting the Flash player. I set it up in the proper search-engine-friendly manner with direct links and JQuery/Ajax functions. If someone goes to site.com/ and clicks the Contact nav link, it loads what's in the main content div on site.com/contact.php into the main content div and changes the URL bar to site.com/#Contact. The same goes for if they go to site.com/contact.php and click About in the nav, it loads the About content and changes the URL bar to site.com/contact.php#About. Obviously this opens up a whole new can of worms with AJAX and hash navigation/history issues, and I would end up with people possibly linking to things like site.com/contact.php#About (which I think looks terrible and can't be too great for SEO). Store the Flash player vars somewhere and reload them with the page: I'm not sure how to go about this, but I thought about keeping my regular navigation without AJAX and have it so when a user clicks a nav link, before it changes pages it stores the Flash player vars (current song and song position) somewhere, then loads them into Flash when the new page loads. Something with an iframe? Good alternative to a Flash player that will work for this type of application? Thanks!

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• How can I make my Google Maps api v3 address search bar work by hitting the enter button on the keyboard?

  - by Gavin

  I'm developing a webpage and I would just like to make something more user friendly. I have a functional Google Maps api v3 and an address search bar. Currently, I have to use the mouse to select search to initialize the geocoding function. How can I make the map return a placemark by hitting the enter button on my keyboard? I just want to make it as user-friendly as possible. Here is the javascript and div, respectively, I created for the address bar: var geocoder; function initialize() { geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder (); function codeAddress () { var address = document.getElementById ("address").value; geocoder.geocode ( { 'address': address}, function(results, status) { if (status == google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK) { map.setCenter(results [0].geometry.location); marker.setPosition(results [0].geometry.location); map.setZoom(14); } else { alert("Geocode was not successful for the following reason: " + status); } }); } <div id="geocoder"> <input id="address" type="textbox" value=""> <input type="button" value="Search" onclick="codeAddress()"> </div> Thank you in advance for your help

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• Can I use a mini PCI-E card in a standard motherboard with PCI/PCI Express slots?

  - by White Phoenix

  I'm helping someone build a computer and they absolutely insist on having an internal Bluetooth adapter. I've been searching around for a PCI-E/PCI based Bluetooth adapter but I've had no luck finding one - I've found some discontinued ones but they have giant antennas coming out the back - the person I'm building the computer for doesn't want that. I've been repeatedly insisting on him simply getting a USB Bluetooth dongle, but he doesn't want one taking up his external USB slots. This is the motherboard I'm using for his build: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157303 My question is if it's possible to use one of those laptop PCI-E cards in a motherboard like this that has PCI-E and PCI slots, or if the form factor is completely different and won't fit?

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• Which Single Source Publishing tools and strategies are available?

  - by Another Registered User

  I'm about to write a 1000-Pages Documentation about a huge programming framework. The goal is to bring this documentation online into an web platform, so that online users can search through it and read it online. At the same time, the text has to be made public in PDF format for download. And at the same time, the whole thing needs to go into a printed book as well (print on demand, they want a giant PDF file with the whole book). The PDF files: The whole content is divided into several chapters. Every chapter will be available as a standalone PDF eBook. And finally, all chapters will be available in one huge printed book. Is LaTeX capable for something like that? Can it be used for Single Source Publishing? Or would I have to take a look at other technologies like DocBook, etc.?

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• Enabling Multiple Monitor Support from Terminal Services/Remote Desktop over Citrix

  - by Nicolas Webb

  Our Remote Desktop/Terminal Services solution where I work relies on Citrix for machines not connected via the VPN. We're using Citrix Xen server (I'm pretty sure) and I'm going to try to connect to a Windows 7 Host (my work computer) and I think the RDC client runs on a Win2003 host (exposed via Citrix). Is it possible to take advantage of Windows 7 multiple monitor support for RDC with this setup? Would I need to try getting my Citrix guys to have a different host machine for the RDC (Win2008, or Win7?)? I'm probably going to connect using the OS X Citrix client, but I'd be willing to BootCamp/Fusion up a Windows instance to work remotely, as well. I really want to be able to use multiple monitors remotely. It does "span" multiple montiors currently (I have a 3000x1024 desktop, for example) but I'd rather it be "true" multiple monitor instead of one giant desktop, if possible.

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• Options to optimize lotus notes 8.5.X

  - by Jakub

  Has anyone found actually useful optimization methods for the bulky, fat, eclipse giant, nuissance that is Lotus Notes 8.5? I want it to be fast, and not eat up system resources like crazy while I run it ALL day (as it is my company's corporate mail / cal / scheduling solution). I've tried various hacks for the JVM heap size (if I recall correctly). None really bring a performance improvement. I have a dual core cpu, if that helps (I tried going the route of optimizing JAVA for 2 cores in hopes it would work, but seen no speed improvement). Notes is just sooo bloated, anyone have any suggestions to optimize/mod this thing so it is more responsive and less of a resource hog. Note: I don't want to switch to the web version, or the standard stripped down versions, I am aware of those, I just cannot since we don't run those internally for the company.

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• Text Editor that hilights all instances of selection for Mac

  - by jedierikb

  On Windows, I use Notepad++ which has the great feature of when I select a word, all instances of that word are also highlighted in the same document. I have found it very helpful for finding patterns in giant log files. I am wondering if there is a similar feature in a text editor on the Mac. I have looked into the documentation for TextWrangler and TextMate to no avail. Hopefully there is a way to do this so I can be more productive when working on a Mac. -- Note: in Notepad++ you do not have to do a keyboard shortcut to make this work... you just select some text and it does the highlighting for you automatically.

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• A good resource for LAMP?

  - by Hypercube

  Hello, I want to learn about servers, not for any particular application, I simply want to learn. I am looking at LAMP, but I can't find any resources for learning about it. I have a giant book from 2004, would it still be applicable or should I use something more recent? I looked online but couldn't find anything beyond installation. Is there a comprehensive resource, preferably using Python (since I already know it) and preferably free, for learning LAMP? I don't know much about networking, is it a prerequisite for LAMP? Thanks in advance.

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